What Are You Waiting For?
by JohnnyGirl
Summary: Goten x Trunks shounen-ai! Sometimes you have to take the long way around, even with the dragonballs.
1. lost sleep

Here's the expected author shpiel:

This fic is shounen-ai which means that it involves boys in love with boys. This is one of my first fanfics so please be tolerant. I don't write much outside of school so don't expect my writing style to be anything groundbreaking. I could go on and on about the many reasons why you may not like this fic and berate my own writing skills but I'll let other people do that cuz I'm too lazy.

And a note about the laziness: I am the laziest person on earth. Chances are I will need to be prodded with something sharp if you want to see more than two chapters.

In case you didn't read the summary or you have the memory span of a goldfish, this fic is a Goten and Trunks shounen-ai.

All the clever disclaimer remarks have been used before. *dusts off a standard issue I DO NOT OWN DBZ disclaimer and slaps it on* 

And now for your reading pleasure: (or whatever you plan to get out of this):

**What Are You Waiting For?**

It's been a long time since the last time I remembered a dream. Not that I keep track or anything, but I guess because I dream so rarely, it feels like a special occasion when I do.

But moments ago I woke up from a dream and remembered it. Now that I think of it, it was a good dream. But I think while I was asleep it didn't cross my mind that I was having a good time. Very strange, but then again I don't think there has ever been a dream that made perfect sense.

I dreamt that I was holding Trunks. Wow. If it hadn't been a dream I know it would have felt good. I really, really.... like... Trunks. But... the dream lacked emotion. I was sitting on a bed (in the dream) and holding Trunks to my chest. For a long time. And that was the whole dream.

I sighed. Wouldn't it be nice if it was a precognitive dream? Maybe some time soon... I could tell Trunks... you know...

That I liked him...

My face grew warm at the thought. I brushed my cold hand across my forehead. Maybe Trunks would be okay with it? Just maybe? My face became hotter. I pressed my palm into my cheek and stared at the wall.

I couldn't tell him that I fell in love with him. It would be too hard and too risky. I could just tell him... how confused I felt...

I sighed. We've been friends since forever. I can't remember a time when I didn't know Trunks. I don't remember meeting him, and there was never a time when we decided to be best friends. We just were. Similarly, there was never a time that I fell in love with him. I think maybe I always have loved him, even before I really knew anything about love or crushes. It seems almost natural to love him. But I could never know... I had never been in love before... how could I tell if this was a crush, or love, or just a normal best friend thing.

So that's why I am considering telling him that. Telling him that I'm not sure... about the relationship we have, and the one we could have.

And then there's the dream... I just dreamed I was holding him in my arms. That's all. No kissing... nothing to suggest that I was actually in love with him. Just holding him. And there was no emotion. No happiness or love or anything. It was just a silent little scene, almost a picture. What kind of message was my subconscious sending me?

I glanced at my clock. It was three in the morning. Sleep was almost out of the question. I had some serious thinking to do.

Several hours later the sun had risen and I was convinced that today I was going to see Trunks. I hadn't sparred with him for some time. Or even seen him. And... I didn't need to tell him anything right away. Or at all. I'd just hang out with him for a while, and see if I felt ready to talk about it later..

I showered, dressed and headed downstairs. Mom was out gardening so I fixed myself a bowl of cereal. And a second. And a third. And I finished off a box, and another box after that. Around ten thirty I picked up the phone and called Capsule Corp. Bulma picked up.

"It's Goten," I said. "Can I please talk to Trunks?"

"Ah, hi Goten, I think Trunks is sleeping, but if you just hang on for a second I'll go check."

I heard the sound of footsteps going up stairs on the other end of the phone. Then some muffled speech, and-

"Hi Goten," said Trunks sleepily.

"Hi Trunks," I said, smiling to hear his voice. "Listen," I said, after a moment. "I haven't seen you for all of summer break. Do you want to spar today? Or maybe grab a bite to eat? Or anything?"

He hesitated before replying.

"Well Goten, I've been kind of sick. For about a week."

"Really?" disappointment was evident in my tone.

"Yeah, but..." he lowered his voice. "I'm feeling a lot better today, and a little fresh air couldn't kill me. But I kind of have to not tell my mom. So I'll meet you at your house, okay?"

"Well- maybe it's not such a great idea. I can wait until you're feeling better."

"Oh come on Goten, I'll be fine. Besides, you're right, I haven't seen you since we got out of school for the summer! I'm coming over! Right now!"

"But Trunks-"

"Goten! Get your gi on right now! I'll be there before you know it."

He hung up.

Well, it was his choice. I wanted to see him, but the reality of it struck me quite suddenly. He was coming now, and I was probably going to tell him... admit that I...

I flopped down on the couch and groaned.


	2. sparring problems

Uh-oh, those reviews I got made me all excited. So here I am, updating again on the same day. I have very serious doubts about getting anything written by tomorrow. (Sunday is homework day.)

But because I enjoy procrastinating so very very much I may end up writing another short chapter.

So here's chapter two!

Oh yeah, and I don't own DBZ.

**What Are You Waiting For? Chapter Two**

"Morning Goten!" said Trunks as he opened the door to my house and invited himself in.

"Trunks!" I rushed to pull myself off the couch and run over to him. I grinned a little wider than I might have. Kami, was I glad to see him.

"Shall we?" he said. He pulled off his jacket and took my arm in his.

"We shall," I said and we marched out of the house. Holding his arm send an excited little tingle down the back of my neck. I fought the urge to force my grin even wider.

"Er, hang on," said Trunks suddenly. He released my arm and walked back into the house. He walked back out again carrying his jacket.

"You can leave it in the house," I said. "And pick it up before you leave."

He shrugged and put an arm through a sleeve.

"I'm just a bit cold," he said.

"Cold?" I asked, confused. "It's really hot out!"

"No it's not," he said, putting his other arm through the other sleeve. Then he glanced at my face and frowned.

"I guess it must be hot. Your face is pretty flushed, Goten."

I imagine my skin turned a shade of even deeper red. It's not the heat Trunks, it's you, I thought. I studied his face. His marvelous blue eyes were staring intently at me. One purple eyebrow was raised. His hair, which needed a quick run through with a comb, was falling into his eyes.

Gorgeous, I thought to myself. But-

"You know Trunks, you're looking kind of pale. Are you feeling okay?" I asked.

He bit down softly on his lower lip. Then he shrugged again and adjusted his jacket.

"I'll be fine, Goten. I'm pretty much recovered from being sick."

"But-"

"Goten." He looked right into my eyes and I fell silent. Why argue? He knew how he was feeling better than I did.

"Right," I said, breaking away from his stare. "Let's go."

We both laughed and launched ourselves into the air.

"The usual spot?" he asked and I nodded. We flew higher and blasted in the direction of a large clearing in the woods a few miles from my house. Trunks must have been in bed for a long time due to his illness, because he seemed very eager to move around. We flew around each other in circles and laughed almost insanely.

"Yeah! We're here!" I said. We dropped down to the ground. Trunks leaned against a tree stump for a moment to catch his breath. Fine with me. I took the opportunity to admire him again.

"Ready?" I asked.

He smirked, took a step forward and-

He phased out of view and I knew immediately to spin around and block him, coming from behind me. A foot was headed straight at my face! I ducked, grabbed his other leg and flipped him onto his back, onto the ground. He threw his feet back over his head and stood. We both pushed off the ground and I charged forward and began to assault him with many quick punches and kicks. He blocked over and over, and managed to get a couple of swings at me. I dodged them and threw my fist hard into his jaw.

Only five minutes later Trunks looked almost beaten. He was tired, sweating and breathing hard.

"Ready to give up?" I asked, intending to taunt him but my concern was obvious.

"Nope," he said and powered up to super saiyajin. 

"Wait-" I said but suddenly I was dodging and blocking frantically.

We've never gone super so early in a fight before, I thought. Wait, but i haven't even gone super, and I'm holding out pretty well! I really think we should stop 'cuz Trunks really needs to rest-

My thought was cut short as I was thrown into a tree at the edge of the clearing. I resisted the inevitable impact by righting myself with my ki- I hate hurting trees. Trunks appeared above me, ready to send my face into the ground... I tried to think of a way out-

but Trunks stopped short and his hair faded back to purple.

"I'm too," he gasped, "too tired," he finished, and coughed a few times.

"Seriously?" I asked. "Are you okay?"

He didn't respond, and he took a few huge gulps of air as we drifted to the ground. A few recovering breaths later and he was peeling his jacket off.

"Maybe we'd better stop sparring... you still look kind of sick." I said. He shot me an exasperated "no, really?" look.

"Do you wanna go back home?" I asked.

He shook his head no. "We can walk or something. Maybe sit around at the lake. I really wanna stay outside."

"Sure." I shrugged. We'd have more time to talk. I'd have more time to put off telling Trunks about...that I have a crush on... might even be in love with... am so confused about... him. A quick rush of adrenaline washed through me and I shook my head to try to assuage the momentary panic. No need to get anxious about it until it happens. Which may not even be today. An attempted confident grin resulted in a shaky jerk of my mouth.

He raised his eyebrows in question. I smiled again, a shaky sardonic smile. He still looked slightly puzzled but he looked straight ahead and we began the short walk to the lake.


	3. the plot thinnens

These reviews are getting to my head, so I've written another chapter. You guys are going to be disappointed when this burst of motivation wears off. All in favor of longer chapters please review.

If I owned DBZ I wouldn't be putting disclaimers at the start of every chapter.

Sorry I rushed this chapter…

What Are You Waiting For? Chapter three 

We lay side by side at the shore of the lake in companionable silence for a long time before either of us said anything. I think he was feeling better from resting a little, which relieved me, but since there was no distraction from my anxious thoughts, I started to feel sick from nerves. I tried to think about other things besides my upcoming talk with Trunks, but my mind was stuck on repeat.

I glanced over at Trunks. There he was, lying peacefully, so much like an angel, and here was I, made involuntarily jumpy by my own brain.

His mere presence was driving my mind in circles. What was going to happen? What If I told him? What if I didn't? What if I told him and he laughed at me? What if he would feel too uncomfortable around me for the rest of his life to ever go near me again? What if I disgusted him to the extent that he hated me? I know for a fact that he doesn't mind gays, but what if he'd change his mind when a situation like this involved him? What if I completely screwed up and said everything wrong? What if I actually told him that I loved him, rather than explain the real situation, which was that… that… I didn't know… didn't know anything except that he means everything to me…Oh Kami, help, I'm so stuck, this is driving me crazy, he's gonna hate me, why can't I stop thinking, make it stop please make it-

"Goten!" Trunks jolted me out of panic mode. He'd been trying to get my attention.

"Hmm?" I said quickly. The sound of his voice sent a shock down my spine but I tried to act casual as I turned to face him.

"What?" I continued.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"'Course I am," I replied, trying to sound believable. "You feeling better?"

"Much better," he said. He sat up and wrapped his arms around his legs and rested his chin on his knees. I felt that shock feeling run through me again as I realized I was thinking it was incredibly cute.

I joined him in sitting up, and watched his face as he stared out across the lake.

"Goten," he said again, after a length. "Goten, you like girls, right?"

WHAT? I screamed in my head. I felt blood drain out of my face. Trunks rushed to continue.

"No, no Goten, I'm sorry, no, I didn't mean… I didn't mean that I thought that you didn't like girls! No, what I meant was, err, um…"

"What did you mean?" I mumbled, unsure of what emotion to put in my voice. I hope it didn't sound angry, but then he apologized again.

"I'm sorry Goten, I didn't mean it like that! I meant, well, you know how you haven't been dating, at all, I think, and, uhh, I dunno, do you want to talk about girls?"

"Whuh?" I managed.

He was silent for a couple seconds, and then he said, very awkwardly:

"Goten- you know- we're best friends and all, and we're in high school- we've been in high school for three years- well, I have, you've had two years. And really, heh, um, we don't talk about girls with each other at all."

I stared at him. "You… want to talk about girls?"

"Well, why not?" he asked, sounding a little put out and more than a little uncomfortable. I looked down at my knees. Why not? _Why not, Trunks?_ Because I would have nothing to say! Why would I want to talk about girls? It's not a girl that I have a crush on right now! Why not? Because now that you've gone and brought up _girls_, it means that if I feed you some story about my liking girls, I could never reveal that I like _you_! So now I have to decide the fate of my mental health _this very minute._ And I am not ready. I don't want to lie, but I don't want you to hate me.

I took a deep breath and an unsteady smile surfaced on my face.

"Alright, so Trunks, are there any girls that you like?"

"Um," said Trunks, looking down suddenly and picking at a blade of grass. "Well, I guess there's this girl in my chemistry class… do you know Keiko?

"Keiko who?" I asked. My mind was numb but my mouth was working.

"Aw, never mind, she's a junior, you wouldn't even know her," he finished quietly.

"Oh."

"So, do you like anyone, Goten?" he continued to stare at the ground. I guess the conversation wasn't going like he'd planned. I briefly wondered if I had said something stupid or embarrassing with my brain in such a state.

"…" I said.

"Huh?" said Trunks.

This was it… tell him now Goten, you can do it, just a few seconds and it'll be over!

"I… I-" I choked out, wondering if this was just a dream. I had no idea what I was going to say next.

He looked up at me with an expression my swimming mind couldn't comprehend. Angry? Bored? Hopeful? Amused? Scared?

"Goten.." he said, taking a shuddering breath in and trying to exhale lightly. "Goten, I.."

I froze.

My heartbeat was pounding hard in my ears. How many seconds had gone by? Minutes? I heard breathing but I wasn't sure if it was his or mine.

He whispered my name again, very softly but it overpowered all else.

I closed my eyes.

And at that moment Trunks' energy gave out and he fell to the ground, unconscious.


	4. virus

Hey guys! So now you've experienced it firsthand: lack of update. No, it was not writer's block or too much homework. It was LAZINESS! Be prepared for a lot of it in the future!

Alrighty then, first off I'd like to thank my reviewers. You've been great! Shella, I am very flattered. I'm a bigbig fan of your fics! And everyone, sorry about the cliffie… I know those things suck… I keep forgetting that you guys on the other end of the internet don't know what's going to happen next…

What am I waiting for? Did you want an update or did you want an update?

_I don't own DBZ!_

What Are You Waiting For? Chapter four 

"Mom! DAD!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. I looked down at Trunk's limp body in my arms. "Open the door!" I half sobbed.

I barged past my surprised dad and headed for the couch to lay Trunks down. "Trunks!" I choked. "Dad! I... I dunno what happened… I – I, he… Trunks just collapsed and I have no idea what's wrong and maybe he's sick and I tried to wake him up and- and-"

My head was a frantic mess. What was wrong with Trunks? How could he get _this sick?_ Was it my fault to have let him come outside with me? Or maybe I had injured him sparring, or maybe- maybe he was comatose, or, or-

My dad quickly shut the door and joined me. "He's breathing," he said. A little relief pushed its way through the turbulent sea of panic.

"But it doesn't look good," he continued. I noticed that Trunks' breath was shallow and fast, and he periodically held his breath and gasped. "He looks as if he's in pain," noted my dad further.

"What… what do we do?" I asked.

He hesitated.

"We're going to Capsule Corp," he replied. I gently lifted Trunks to my chest again. Dad grasped my shaking wrist in one hand and with the other put his two fingers to his forehead. He concentrated.

And then he lowered his hand. What? We hadn't gone anywhere. He released his hand from my wrist.

"Dad?" I asked.

"Unless…" he said, looking thoughtful. Then his expression turned troubled. He stood and made his way to his room. I heard the sounds of rummaging and he came back clutching a small bottle. I didn't recognize it. He put it in his pocket and we resumed our previous position. I bit down hard on my lip. You'd better be okay, Trunks.

Dad moved his fingers to his forehead, and in an instant we were at Capsule Corp. 

"BULMA!" yelled Dad to an empty living room. "Bulma, we have an emergency!" I heard footsteps ascending stairs and a door swing open. Bulma entered the room, wearing a lab coat and holding a small pocketknife with little tools in one hand, and in the other hand a tiny device- a project she must have been working on.

"Goku? Goten! What-" she stopped suddenly.

"It's Trunks," I managed. My voice was squeaky and almost inaudible. I don't think she even heard it.

"Trunks!" She exclaimed. "What happened? I though he was in bed!"

"Goten?" asked my dad.

"He… went sparring with me."

I looked around for a place to set Trunks down. I transferred him from my arms to a big off-white couch.

"He said he was feeling better. I didn't know he was this sick… maybe I just hurt him sparring or something," I finished. I inhaled sharply, repeatedly, and in a moment I was crying. Tears blurred my vision.

Bulma and dad began to examine Trunks. Meanwhile I tried to regain control of my sobbing. Why was I even crying at all? It's so unlike me… I'm fifteen, and Trunks getting sick was nothing compared to some of the other ordeals in my life. And I was pretty certain it wasn't my fault. It was just an embarrassing overreaction for me to burst out into tears like that. Maybe it was all from the stress of almost telling Trunks how I felt. I took a deep breath and wiped my eyes with my hand.

"… think it could be?" Bulma was saying.

"I know it seems unlikely," said dad, "but he's showing a lot of the same symptoms."

"But they're awfully general symptoms, Goku. It could be anything."

"But you say he's been sick for a week? It could very well be the heart virus. And sparring with Goten made it worse, didn't it?" He turned to me. "He didn't go super-saiyajin, did he, Goten?"

"What heart virus, dad?'

"Later, Goten. Did Trunks go super-saiyajin?"

"Uh-huh, but only for a few minutes, and then he got really tired and we stopped sparring," I said. Dad spoke to Bulma again.

"It's just like when I had the heart virus," he said. Bulma took a deep breath. She looked panicked.

"We'll have to run some tests…"

Dad reached into his pocket. 

"I brought the medicine from the future, just in case," he said. He scratched his head. "There's only one pill left, though. Maybe we should give it to him, and if he gets a little better… well I dunno, do you think the medicine's been invented in our time, yet?" He twisted the cap to open the bottle.

"Goku!" yelped Bulma and snatched it away. "Goku, I think I would know if there had been any sort of breakthrough cure for anything in the past few years, and there isn't any, so we can't give him the pill, because we'll need it to synthesize more. If it's the heart disease at all, which is highly unlikely! It could just be a bad flu!" She shoved her pocket sized tools into her pocket and examined the bottle.

"When was the last time Trunks ever got sick?" said a voice. We turned to see Vegeta, standing next to the couch on which Trunks lay. I don't think even one of us had noticed him come in. Bulma frowned.

"When was the last time any saiyajin got sick?" he demanded. "Not since Kakarott had that virus. Your human flu could not take Trunks out, not like this," he finished,

Several seconds of silence followed. I was so incredibly confused. Trunks was sick with- might be sick with- a virus that almost killed my father?

Suddenly Trunks coughed and gasped.

"Trunks!" we all almost shouted, and we were on him in an instant. 

"How are you feeling?"

"Can you hear me?"

"Are you awake?"  
"Does it hurt right here?"

His breath caught in his throat over and over again as he tried to wake up completely and take in his situation. His eyes fell on me. 

"Go… ten…" he said, and closed his eyes again. Fear flooded through me as I realized those might have been his last moments awake. Ever.

The noise faded as we realized that Trunks could not be woken. I sat down on the coffee table by the couch rested my chin in my palm.

It was Bulma who spoke next. She held up both hands in front of her. In one hand she held the medicine.

"I'm going to get a team of people together to make some more of this stuff."

In the other hand she held the little device she'd been working on. She gripped it tighter.

"Then, I need to make a very important phone call."


End file.
